Summary: Judah rejected the true message because they want to believe the lie. All actions have a consequence and the time for accountability had arrived. The human heart embraces sin so firmly it will not release it and hastens on to its own destruction. Babylon was the scorching wind.

LESSONS FROM JEREMIAH – PART 15 – SWIFTER THAN EAGLES THE LAND WILL BE SCORCHED BY BABYLON

PART 15 - Jeremiah 4:10-

CHAPTER 4

[A]. GOD’S WILL ALLOWS ODD THINGS TO HAPPEN

{{Jeremiah 4:10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, SURELY YOU HAVE UTTERLY DECEIVED THIS PEOPLE and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’, whereas a sword touches the throat.”}}

At face value this verse looks concerning, as if Jeremiah is chastising God for deceiving the nation. His own message of truth was not being received, but the people believed they would have peace. The verse begins with a lament with “Ah” for Jeremiah is grieved at what is going to happen to Judah, and because the Lord is allowing the deception to happen and not combatting it. It is as if God, Himself is deceiving the people.

Jeremiah had great concern, for a sword was in place already at Judah’s throat, but all the people believed that nothing would happen and they were safe. Have things changed over the last 2 500 years? I think not. We are so close to the Rapture and then the Great Tribulation, but do people in the world care? It is almost like some of the people who go to churches don’t care either. The Lord speaks of these very days, just like the time of Jeremiah. Paul explains that the Day of the LORD (it begins after the Rapture) will come this way – {{1Thessalonians 5:2-4 for you yourselves know full well that THE DAY OF THE LORD will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “PEACE AND SAFETY!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child and they shall not escape, but you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.”}}

Peace and safety today means people reject the bible’s message about the Rapture and terrible tribulation that is going to come. They are just like Judah was, and then suddenly destruction was on them. That happens to the world after the Church has gone home.

They believed their future was peace, not destruction. The problem was that the people were listening to the false teachers, believing them, but rejecting God’s word through Jeremiah. Why did God allow it? He allowed it because the nation wanted it. God would not force onto them a belief that was not life changing. God’s message would be preached, and the people had the choice to accept that, or turn to another message, one of delusion, and they willingly accepted the latter. The false prophets were telling the people that no enemy would come and they’d continue in peace, and they loved that because they had all that extra time to enjoy the pleasures of sin.

I heard a comment from David Jeremiah on his television program recounting a question he was asked by one in an audience, “My father lived his life and was a good man and now you want to tell me a God of love has put him in hell?” The answer was good. David answered, “I can not tell you if he is in heaven or hell, or if he made a deathbed acceptance of Christ. I do know God will not force a person into a place he did not want to be. If, in his life, a man did not seek heaven or want to live for that, then God won’t compel him to go to heaven.”

As recorded in 2 Chronicles 18, Jehoshaphat made the mistake of forming a marriage alliance with Ahab, and then having contact with him when he went to visit him, and wicked Ahab asked if Jehoshaphat would go to war with him against the Arameans. This unsettled Jehoshaphat and he asked for a prophet so he could enquire from the prophet. Ahab trotted out 400 of them who all said he should go to war because God would give the victory. Jehoshaphat was still not certain about that and asked for another prophet, and Ahab reluctantly brought Micaiah out of prison where he was, because he never prophesied good for Ahab, and this true prophet forecast the doom of Ahab and loss of the battle.

Now what was happening here? Ahab believed the rosy picture of the 400 because he wanted to, and rejected the true prophecy of the true servant of the true God. People will reject the true message because they want to believe the lie. The bible said that, “When they shall say, ‘Peace, peace’, then destruction comes on them rapidly.” They prophesy peace when there is no peace.

Jeremiah had A LOT OF TROUBLE FROM THESE FALSE PROPHETS soothing the ears of the wicked with falsehood, and the theme occurs through his book with these examples showing that –

{{Jeremiah 6:13-14 From the least of them even to the greatest of them, EVERYONE IS GREEDY FOR GAIN, and from the prophet, even to the priest, EVERYONE DEALS FALSELY. They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.

Jeremiah 5:30-31 An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: THE PROPHETS PROPHESY FALSELY, and the priests RULE AT THEIR DIRECTION. MY PEOPLE LOVE TO HAVE IT SO, but what will you do when the end comes?

Jeremiah 14:14-16 The Lord said to me: “THE PROPHETS ARE PROPHESYING LIES IN MY NAME. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine, those prophets shall be consumed, and the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them - them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, for I will pour out their evil upon them.”}}

We have false teachers today, and false prophets. What an amazing set of verses these are because they are so much like our modern world.

(a). Everyone is greedy for gain. I have not seen it so bad with the greed in everyone’s heart. Big tech companies and monopolies and multi-nationals and Unions and the list is endless.

(b). Everyone deals falsely. You should all know the disgraceful way politicians and governments behave. You can’t trust anyone. People are becoming treacherous.

(c). The prophets prophesy falsely. There are those who think they are prophets but they are deluded and they deceive others. False teachers are everywhere and the bible is torn apart.

(d). Priests ruled in self-will. These supposed men of God, neglected God and devised myths and lies from their own minds.

(e). Prophets were speaking lies in the Lord’s name. These men were so deceived that they were speaking lies and thought it was the truth. In the closing days of Judah’s nation, and in the closing days of our sinful nations, there was/is a large increase in lies and deception. Maybe we can call it signs of the time.

God allowed the false prophets to operate, for the people rejected God and chose their own prophets, much like the way the people of our country reject righteousness and elect to continue in sin, and politically, vote for a party that is most like them. It is not God who utterly deceived Judah, but the people deceived themselves. The source of the delusion can not be attributed to God, but to the people who wanted what is false, but that affected the righteous and the honest sensitivity of this great prophet who yearned for his people to turn to righteousness and truth, but they would not.

[B]. SWIFTER THAN EAGLES THEY WILL SCORCH THE LAND

{{Jeremiah 4:11 “In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people - not to winnow, and not to cleanse, Jeremiah 4:12 a wind too strong for this - will come at My command. Now I will also pronounce judgments against them. Jeremiah 4:13 Behold, he goes up like clouds, and his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!”}}

Verse 11 begins with “In that time,” and that time is the time of Judah’s judgement as the Babylonians ravish the land. It comes after countess warnings from the LORD but the people did not listen. This scorching wind comes from the bare heights we spoke about earlier – {{Jeremiah 3:2 “Lift up your eyes TO THE BARE HEIGHTS and see. Where have you not been violated? . . .”}} The main message is aimed at Jerusalem as that was to suffer the most horrendous overthrow.

Here is an illustration of the scorching wind, a powerful wind that is far too strong and hot to winnow grain or cleanse as the warm weather can do. This is a wind of fierce judgement and comes from the desert direction, over the bare heights that will be no barrier. The people will be told this, but the time of revelation is too short for them to take counter measures, and the scorching wind, which is Babylon, will burn them up.

In verse 12 God takes ownership of this scorching wind. It is in His will to punish His people because of their retractable sin and the awful treatment they threw upon the prophets the LORD sent. All actions have a consequence and the time for accountability had arrived.

Verse 13 is the picture of the military might rising up to cover the land, mushrooming onwards, ever forwards. The advance will be swift, many chariots advancing, pulled by swift horses. Such will be the progress, that the horses will seem to go quicker than an eagle’s flight. The people will be rendered powerless, and stunned, and can do nothing more than cry out in alarm and distress that they are ruined. They should have cried out much earlier in conviction and repentance, and returned to their God.

We are left with no doubt that this is all of God. Verse 12 says that this wind (Babylon) comes at the Lord’s command and we know that, because of the frequent references in Scripture. Babylon comes because God is pronouncing judgements against Judah, and in judgement, He uses a tender expression – “the daughter of My people”. He has abandoned them to Nebuchadnezzar, but the relationship still remains even to this day, and will be gloriously realised in the not too distant future when Israel will be redeemed and wit sit magnificently as the chief nation in the earth.

[C]. THE BABYLONIAN INVASION ANTICIPATED

{{Jeremiah 4:14 Wash your heart from EVIL, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts lodge within you?

Jeremiah 4:15 for a voice declares from Dan, and PROCLAIMS WICKEDNESS from Mount Ephraim.

Jeremiah 4:16 “Report it to the nations, now! Proclaim over Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers come from a far country, and lift their voices against the cities of Judah.

Jeremiah 4:17 Like watchmen of a field they are against her round about, because she has rebelled against Me,’ declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 4:18 “Your ways and your deeds have brought these things to you. THIS IS YOUR EVIL. How bitter! How it has touched your heart!”}}

Verse 14 is yet another plea to Jerusalem with the instruction to wash its heart, addressed to the city, but it would require individual responses. Only repentance could do that. Then Jeremiah asked them how long their wicked thoughts were going to lodge in them. It was a question without answer, for the people would not change and were content in their wickedness. They loved their wickedness like pigs in mud. To repent, there must be a stimulus, most often the work of the Holy Spirit, but I wonder what might have been the result if the people could have seen graphically what the conditions were going to be like in the invasion with all the death and misery. Would that have caused them to flee to God and away from their wickedness? I do not know.

The thought just raised is an interesting one, for at the end of this prophecy when Jeremiah is in Egypt with a remnant who left Judah when the Lord wanted them to stay, the prophet addressed them and sternly warned them about their continuing sin after they saw those sins had brought Jerusalem down. They defiantly told him they would not listen and they would continue to worship the Queen of Heaven. It made no difference. The human heart embraces sin so firmly it will not release it and hastens on to its own destruction. Our current world is no different.

There is an interesting use of a Hebrew word in verse 14 with the word for “evil” in the NASB and NIV, or “wickedness” in the KJV. It is “aven” and Jeremiah uses it with a double meaning. It comes from a root meaning worthlessness and can be used for wickedness, or misery and affliction. The evil or wickedness of Jerusalem will prove to be also her affliction and misery.

What is truly amazing in Jeremiah’s entire prophecy is the number of times that God pleaded with the nation, even right up to the time of Babylon's siege. It was like the plea to Pharaoh to “let My people go,” but it made no difference to Judah. Stubborn and godless they had become and destruction lay before them.

Verse 15 - Then a proclamation is sounded out in the far north of Judah. The use of “aven” in verse 15 is that the proclamation is about misery and affliction for the northern army has arrived. Dan is in the far north and Mt Ephraim is the range that separated Israel from Judah. The verse means that the Babylonians have arrived and misery is being sounded out. The NASB uses the translation “wickedness” here, but it is not wickedness that is sounded out, but its other meaning of affliction and misery and lament.

The NIV is more correct with “disaster” and the ESV with “trouble”, but Darby has it best with “affliction”. One thought some hold, is that some believe Dan and Ephraim are mentioned because of the golden calves that were worshipped in Dan and Bethel belonging to the tribe of Ephraim. This is supported by the Targum of Jeremiah. The Targums were explanations of the Hebrew Scriptures in Chaldaic (Western Aramaic) for the benefit of those Jews who had partially or completely ceased to understand the sacred tongue.

This was after the captivity, maybe a few hundred years later when they were written. The targum of Jeremiah follows the method of other targums. Much of it is a close translation of the original, and in many portions it expands the translation by the insertion of words and phrases. In other passages, it paraphrases or interprets. Instead of the figurative expressions, it sometimes gives their direct meaning as understood by the translator. In the Targum of Jeremiah, this is how the translation goes: "for the voice of the prophets that prophesied against them that go into captivity, because they worshipped the calf, which is at Dan; and they that bring evil tidings, shall come upon them, because they served the image which Micah set up in the mount of the house of Ephraim.'' It is 16 km from Dan to Jerusalem so when the lament sounds out from Dan, then the Babylonians are almost at their mark. Wickedness becomes affliction.

Verses 16 and 17 spell out the start of invasion. It began with a call to the nations to know, and for the message to be proclaimed in Jerusalem, which would have caused panic for some, but others were believing their false prophets that there was going to be peace, so they continued in their wickedness. The message is that foreigners have arrived in the land, and were starting to destroy. They are like watchmen watching the cities and surrounding them for attack.

It is not until the end of verse 17 we learn it is the Lord speaking so this is the Lord’s announcement of the invasion. Let the nation make no mistake, this is the Lord who has brought the army into the country; has allowed it to come to punish Judah. Verse 17 contains the one word we can say is responsible for the overthrow of Judah and that is “rebelled” and we have seen that thought over and over in Jeremiah. The Lord then explains once again the reasons why disaster has come. It resulted from their ways and their deeds. There is no need to expand. We have seen some already and there is a lot more to come.

They were evil and their evil tree also must bear fruit, and Babylon is the fruit, the bitter fruit of destruction. The Lord gives ownership – “your evil”. Blame no one. It was Judah totally. The Lord can observe and say, “How bitter” and “how it has touched your hearts” but by then it is too late. A multitude of warnings had been given over hundreds of years; prophets sent and all mistreated and disbelieved; and the clock had reached the designated time and their end had come. As prophetic writings go, so in Jeremiah, there is no chronological order, so what seems to be the start of the invasion will be followed in later chapters by pre-invasion material including more appeals to the idolatrous nation.